Tailored consultancy support to develop mathematical problem-solving in real-life contexts.

ASSESSMENT FOR LEARNING

No matter how often teaching staff have to adapt to changes in policy,
the key is still whether the children are making progress and how teachers
ensure that different needs are being addressed, while maintaining a level of
challenge for all.

At Education Works, we have developed a range of approaches to support AfL
in the classroom. These are briefly outlined in the ‘What is involved?’ and
‘Key questions’ drop-down tabs below.

Who is it for?

All teaching staff in primary schools.

What is involved?

Our Mathematics Consultant, Sam Adams, can provide support on Assessment for Learning in Mathematics in a number of ways:

In Mathematics - do you use ‘baseline tasks’ to differentiate rather than having fixed ability groups? Do children move groups in a lesson / across a series of lessons based on their understanding?

Do you employ a ‘cold task’ approach to determine a baseline? Do you use related ‘hot’ tasks to demonstrate progression in a lesson / across a series of lessons?

When are mathematical interventions happening? Are they provided in the following session / on the same day? Is pre-teaching being used to determine knowledge prior to the unit / strand being taught?

Does the teaching and learning sequence incorporate opportunities for the children to demonstrate reasoning skills that are not merely word problems?

How is ‘variation’ actively promoted?

How does your curriculum support fluency – in terms of number/calculations and in cross-strand application?

How does your curriculum support mastery?

How do you ensure that whole-school policy is whole-school practice in terms of – e.g. - Marking and Feedback approaches?

Do children get an opportunity to mark their own / peers’ work?

How does questioning in Mathematics lessons challenge and extend all children?

Do you counter the argument that a ‘Checklist’ approach to Success Criteria over-scaffolds for children by turning your SC into questions? Are these SC questions then used as a proactive guide for children to demonstrate learning against a Learning Objective?

How is progression across a lesson / series of lessons ‘captured’?

Do book scrutinies actively involve the children (pupil voice) as part of the moderation process?

Do your Pupil Voice Audits currently include children’s attitudes to a particular subject?